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Sunday, 15 April 2012

Swansea 3 - Blackburn 0

3 points and barring an almost impossible
set of circumstances, Premier League football has been secured. This season may have been about more than
just surviving and the performances have largely reflected that but it’s an
almighty relief for it to have been achieved with a few games to spare.

For a team who still have a reasonable
chance of staying up, Blackburn’s approach seemed remarkably flat and lacking
in ambition against a team like them who had lost 4 league games in a row. They don’t have the defensive capabilities of
recent victors at the Liberty (Everton and Newcastle) and appeared to be largely
hoping for a bit of luck at a set piece.

Yakubu, Swansea’s tormentor in the fixture
at Ewood park received the ball only 8 times in the 60 minutes he was on the
pitch but with Samba no longer with Blackburn and Caulker playing, it was
always likely to be far less of a threat than in that match.

Despite this, as with the game at Ewood Park, all of Paul Robinson's passes went in to the opposition half where Vorm's passing was generally short but even when long, usually accurate.

Comparison of Vorm's and Robinson's Passing

Prior to the weekend’s fixtures, Swansea
had the most number of players (5), along with Spurs who had started 30+ league
games this season and like Spurs had been accused in some quarters of running
out of steam.

Newcastle with 4 players arguably scuppers the 'tired legs' theory but 1 of those (Coloccini) has missed a couple of games recently.

Although there could have been the argument
for a few changes, the only change was Dyer in for Routledge making the
starting 11 arguably the first 11 that would be the pick of most Swans fans.

The return to the starting line-up of Dyer saw
the return of Ashley Williams’ long diagonal out to the right, although it isn’t
always successful (only 40% of his long balls were against Blackburn), when it
does work it’s highly effective in putting Dyer in to space (often with Rangel
in close support). Even if it doesn’t
work, it reminds the opposition defence of this threat which can result in there
being more space in the middle as the defence look to cover the diagonal.

Williams' Long passing against Blackburn

During the last 15 minutes of the first
half Swansea were particularly effective, dominating possession, having 6
attempts at goal in this time compared to 4 in the previous half hour and most
importantly, scoring twice.

Both Dyer and Sinclair had impressive games,
both making 4 successful take-ons out of 7 attempts.

As well as the take-ons, Dyer was yet again the most fouled player in the game, being fouled 5 times (3 more than any other player).

Allen was once again top tackler for
Swansea with 4 (2 more than any other Swans player) and Sigurdsson having the
most attempts (5) although it was pleasing to see 9 different Swansea players
have an attempt on goal.